PIMS fails to get HC's nod for MBBS admissions

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday denied permission to the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here to provisionally admit students for the fresh batch of MBBS.

punjabUpdated: Oct 01, 2013 13:21 IST

Sanjeev Bhalla Hindustan Times

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday denied permission to the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here to provisionally admit students for the fresh batch of MBBS.

With the last date of admission over on Monday, PIMS has lost the chance to admit a batch of 150 MBBS students.

Anticipating a favourable verdict from the court, the institute management had issued an advertisement in newspapers, inviting candidates from the state to fill forms, which were provided free of cost.

Nearly 1,000 forms were reportedly submitted in response to the advertisement by Sunday evening. The authorities had called the parents after 3pm on Monday for counselling.

Talking to HT, principal director Dr Kulbir Kaur said, "We have failed to get the court nod to admit students. The exercise done on Saturday and Sunday had been nullified. We were hopeful of getting relief, so we took a chance by inviting candidates. Today (Monday) was the last date of counselling also, as per instructions of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot."

On July 16, the Medical Council of India (MCI) had barred PIMS from admitting students for this session (2013-14) in MBBS, using its powers under Section 10(A) of the MCI Act, due to the institute's failure to fulfil the condition of requisite infrastructure.

The institute started in 2011 and has admitted two MBBS batches so far. It was allotted to a society headed by Punjab rural development minister Surjit Singh Rakhra on a 99-year lease. In March-April, the institute had witnessed a series of strikes by paramedical staff, doctors and administrative staff over non-payment of salaries for months.